Women & Usability of Mobile Financial Services in India

Research on

Women & Usability of Mobile Financial Services in India

GRAMEENFOUNDATION.ORG

Research on Women & Usability of Mobile Financial Services in India

Contents

Introduction……………………...….…..3

Summary of Findings……….………..6
Key Factors……………...….....….7

Recommendations…...………….….26

For an additional view of our study, please see
our video of participant responses.


Grameen Foundation | February 2014

2

Introduction
The goal of this research is to understand how mobile phone technology and its
usability is impacting poor women‟s ability to access and benefit from mobile
financial services. Many players assume that if a poor person owns a mobile
phone, they are able to use it. We believe that this is a faulty assumption, and
believe that usability and “mobile phone literacy” are big issues that prevent poor

women in particular from benefitting from mobile-enabled solutions. This study
expands on the „Women, Mobile Phones and Savings‟ case study Grameen
Foundation completed a year ago in India, which studied a 65-person sample
size.
Our intention is to demonstrate the specific challenges and constraints that
women in particular face while using a mobile delivery channel for financial
services. These findings will be used to influence commercial players (mobile
money operators, banks, technology service providers, agent network managers)
as well as back-end technology and hardware designers to address usability
issues that are preventing poor women from benefitting from mobile financial

services.



3

Introduction
Location
In India, CKS conducted research in rural areas
around the district of Jaunpur in Eastern Uttar
Pradesh, an area where all three of the mobile
financial services we targeted (Eko, Airtel
Money and Vodafone M-Pesa) are available.



4

Introduction
Methods
We conducted qualitative research using a variety of methods:

Contextual Interviews

Facilitated Usability Sessions

Observation

We interviewed 15 people
including current
customers, potential customers
and mobile financial services
agents.

We facilitated discovery and
task based usability sessions
with 12 current and potential
users on the interfaces including
8 women and 4 men.

We observed 3 mobile service
agent centers.



5

Summary of Findings
1. Rural women are stuck at home tending to domestic duties and remain unaware of
services available to them.
2. Many women do not own or have access to phones. Those that do, have low comfort
with using them.

3. For women, assisted transactions are here to stay (at least for a generation) and there
is no incentive to become an independent user.
4. Women outsource, often sending their children and husbands to the agent to transact
for them.

5. The user-interfaces use confusing terminology and are not offered in local dialects.
6. These services require up to 16 steps to complete simple functions such as balance
check. This causes confusion, errors and frustration.



6

Key Factors
Our research uncovered the following observations and insights that impact

poor, rural women‟s ability to access and benefit from mobile financial services:
1. Awareness

2. Accessibility

Many poor, rural residents remain unaware
of the mobile financial services available to
them – especially women who are stuck at
home tending to domestic duties.

Poor women often lack access to a phone or
do not own one. The cost of opening a mobile
money account often prohibits customers from
accessing mobile financial services. Network
strength can also be problematic.

3. Comprehension, Comfort & Confidence

4. Usage

These 3C‟s are major factors in women‟s
usage of mobile phones and MFS. Women
are challenged by mobile literacy, MFS
language, terminology and literacy. Often, a
trusted intermediary assists women with
transactions.

Navigating through the user interfaces and
menus is very difficult. Some services require
up to 16 steps to complete simple functions
such as balance check. Other services require
users to enter long strings of numbers and
characters which causes confusion, errors and
frustration.



7

1. Awareness
Many poor, rural residents remain unaware of the mobile financial services
available to them – especially women who are stuck at home tending to
domestic duties.



8

1. Awareness
Service Awareness
One of the three services we researched are effectively
marketing and promoting their services while the other
two services are using channels that do not reach the
rural poor, especially women.
Eko is currently being adopted by the poor women we
interviewed. Our participants became aware of this
service via Cashpor, a microfinance institution that
promotes its service in the weekly meetings in the
village locations.
On the other hand, Vodafone M-Pesa and Airtel Money
promote their service through vans that travel through
main markets located on highways. But the poor women
do not frequently visit these areas so they lack
awareness about these mobile financial services.



9

1. Awareness
We interviewed three agents, one from each of the three MFS‟s to get a sense for how they
promote their services and their awareness of specific features within these services.

EKO

Vodafone M-Pesa

Even though the Cashpor agent knows that the
balance check feature could be performed
independently, he does not inform his customers of
this unless they inquire about it. Additionally, he is

This service was introduced in mid-2013 in the Jaunpur region.
The M-Pesa agent is currently promoting this service only to
his regular, existing customers of Vodafone mobile
service, who have a daily household income of $4 and above.

not aware that his customers can initiate cash
withdrawal through their phones. He explains to
potential customers that they can start saving small
amounts, such as $ 0.32 (INR 20) per week, in order
to save $ 1.60 (INR 100) per month and $ 9.63 (INR
600) in 6 months. As a result, some
women, particularly in the age 26-32 cohort, are
adopting the service because they have 3-4 children
attending school and feel greater need to save to
meet their education related needs.


Airtel Money
The Airtel Money agent services a no-frills savings account of
Axis Bank which allows a customer to save money. Yet, he is

not aware that the Airtel Money can also be used as a savings
vehicle. He is currently promoting Airtel Money through the
mobile and DTH recharge (digital TV account) features as they
are popular among many young men from households with
daily income of $4 and above. Potential female customers are
not reached by this promotion method. They rely on their
husbands and children to transact for them.

10

2. Accessibility
Poor women often lack access to a phone or do not own one. The cost of
opening a mobile money account often prohibits customers from accessing
mobile financial services. Network strength can also be problematic.



11

2. Accessibility
Phone Ownership
Despite increasing mobile penetration in India, roughly 75% in
2013, limited phone access and ownership are barriers for poor
women. In almost every household in our survey, there is just one
phone that is shared by all family members. Generally, men own
the phone and take it to work while women are stuck at home.
Women can use the phone when their husbands are home and
yet even then, they must share with the whole family. This limited
access leads to their discomfort and unfamiliarity with mobile
phones.
For most poor women, mobile financial services are not an option
as they do not own or have easy access to mobile phones. To
address this and motivate women to adopt Eko‟s service, the
agent we spoke with offers her mobile phone for transactions and
asks the women to purchase their own SIM to put in her phone
while they use it.



12

2. Accessibility
Cost
The cost of opening an account often prohibits customers from
accessing mobile financial services. Many poor women say
they are not able to save enough to open an account.
Additionally, there is a lack of knowledge about cost saving
features such as unlimited transaction fees.
Each of the service providers charge a fee. Cashpor and Airtel
Money charge $2.41 (INR 150) to open an account, out of
which $0.80 (INR 50) is the optional cost for unlimited
transactions, but most women are not aware of it. Airtel Money
also charges $2.41 (INR 150) for opening an account, but it is
not optional and the customers have to pay this initial amount.
Vodafone M-Pesa charges $3.21 (INR 200) to open an account.
Many of our participants indicated that they cannot afford to pay
$2.41 (INR 150) to open an account as they only save $1.63.21 (INR 100-200) monthly, which they prefer to keep for
emergency situations.

* All currency conversions based on

1 USD = INR 62.31


13

2. Accessibility
Network
Network connectivity is a major issue for mobile
financial services. We encountered interruptions in
connectivity while testing on all three providers.
Airtel Money is most preferred by customers because
of its good network strength, while Vodafone M-Pesa
is chosen less often due to poor connectivity.
Network strength is a key consideration when
choosing a service provider.



14

3. Comprehension,
Comfort & Confidence
These 3 C‟s are major factors in women‟s usage of mobile phones and MFS.
Women are challenged by mobile literacy, MFS language, terminology and
literacy. Often, a trusted intermediary assists women with transactions.



15

Mobile Literacy
Some of our participants know how to make and
receive calls and, for many, this is the extent of their
abilities. A few of the women in our study (who are
educated) know how to check a message from their
inbox.
All of our participants made errors using these
services. When confused, many pressed “back” or
“call disconnect” because they fear pressing a wrong
button and losing money.



16

Language
The menus, messages and instruction booklets of all
three services are in English or Hindi which none of our
participants are able to consistently and easily
comprehend. Everyone we interviewed expressed a
preference for services to be offered in their local
dialect.



17

Terminology
All three of the services we studied use confusing mobile and
financial terminology that our participants were not able to
understand. Here are some examples of these confusing
terms:
Eko
Abbreviated terms such as “Bal” and “A/C”
Vodafone
Mobile terms such as “prepaid,” “postpaid” and “recharge”
Airtel Money
Financial terminology “Block Amount” (written in Hindi).
Mobile terms such as “prepaid,” “postpaid” and “recharge”



18

Literacy
India (Women): Completion of Tasks across
Literacy Levels

Literacy significantly impacts usage. The comfort of
using mobile phones varies based on literacy levels.
Many cannot read the information displayed on screen

Number of
Women
30

and this inability to understand content and language

25

leads to high error rates. Educated women are more

Completed easily

20

Completed with some effort
and confusion
Completed with assistance

comfortable using mobile phones and make fewer

Could not complete

15

errors than illiterate or less educated women.
10
5
0
Illiterate
(2 Women)


Studied till
Class 8
(4 Women)

Graduate
(2 Women)


19


Using a Trusted Intermediary
With agent-based mobile financial services like
Eko, Airtel Money and Vodafone M-Pesa, agents are
trained and available to help customers make
transactions. They can assist with actions such as
utility bill payments, phone recharge and money
transfers. However rural women do not visit the agent
themselves. They rely on their husbands and children
who visit the agents to transact on their behalf.



20

4. Usage
Navigating through the user interfaces and menus is very difficult. Some
services require up to 16 steps to complete simple functions such as balance
check. Other services require users to enter long strings of numbers and
characters which causes confusion, errors and frustration.



21

4. Usage
Navigation
Navigating through the user interfaces and menus is
very difficult and complex.

PIN: PIN usage is confusing. All of our participants
understood the illustrated instructions in the Eko
booklet but could not understand how to use the 6-

Multi-Step: Both Airtel Money and Vodafone M-Pesa
require between 12-16 steps to complete simple
functions. Most of our participants made several errors
while trying to navigate these steps.

digit OkeKey number and 4-digit PIN.

Memorization: Many of our participants could not read
or comprehend the information on the Airtel Money and
Vodafone M-Pesa screens, instead they memorized the
steps. However, this leads to errors, especially towards
the end of the process, as they only remember the initial
steps.
Multiple Attempts: It took 3–4 guided attempts for our
participants to successfully navigate Airtel Money and MPesa. However, Eko is a one step process and was
immediately successful on the first attempt.



22

4. Usage
Syntax
The sequence of numbers and symbols required to
use MFS is difficult to enter. This syntax
requirement causes confusion.

Decimals: The Eko and Vodafone interfaces
use decimals which are not well understood.
This caused many of our participants to read
balance amounts incorrectly.

Hash: Many women in our study pressed * instead
of # in all three services.
Key correlations: While using Airtel Money and
Vodafone M-Pesa, our participants were not able to
correlate “answer,” “send,” and “back” with their
associated soft key and press the call connect
button below it.
PIN: With Eko, the cash withdrawal feature involves
creating a PIN before dialing the syntax. None of
our participants understood how to create the
syntax for initiating the withdrawal because they do
not understand the instructions to generate this
PIN.


23

4. Usage
Features
Out of the three features (balance check, cash
withdrawal, and mobile recharge), most women (all

prospective MFS users) expressed interest in using
the balance check feature independently because
they can check it on their own at any time without
asking the agent. Some women, whose family
members work in the cities, also expressed interest in
using the cash withdrawal feature of the EKO
technology. Neither of these features would be used
frequently as women only check their balance when
they deposit or withdraw cash (approximately once
every two months).



24

4. Usage
Assisted Transactions
Low comfort with mobile phones and mobile financial
services is a huge barrier to independent usage
among women. Additionally, most women stay at
home and have their husbands and children transact
for them.
A majority of the women in our study cannot use these
mobile financial services independently or need
assistance while using them. Educated participants
needed one-time assistance as compared to lesser
educated women, who need assistance 2-3 times.
Illiterate and lesser educated women are either not
able to use the services at all or need more assistance
in understanding the content and language.



25

Recommendations
Use Language I Know

Keep It Short

Language in the user interfaces and service

The syntax used to check balance and initiate cash

booklets should be in the customer‟s local dialect.

withdrawal should be shorter and simpler.

Make It Easy To Read

Require Fewer Steps

The font size of the service booklet and interface

Fewer steps should be required to navigate. This will

should be big enough to read.

help customers more easily transact.

Drop The Decimals

Come to Where I Am

The use of decimals in the balance amount and

All mobile financial service providers need to better

withdrawal amount should be avoided.

target their potential and existing customers if they
want to ensure wider uptake of their services among

poor women.



26

Thank you.

Grameen Foundation India
Gurgaon, India

Grameen Foundation
Washington , DC

GRAMEENFOUNDATION.ORG


Center for Knowledge Societies
New Delhi, India

Women & Usability of Mobile Financial Services in India

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